Wildfires rage through Australia

November 11, 2019 | Sophia Trout

Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Over 100 active bush fires are raging through Australia as the states Queensland and New South Wales declare a state of emergency.

According to NPR, Australia has had the driest October to date as it begins to experience extreme heat leading up to the summer months. Lack of rain, high temperatures and strong winds are all responsible for the growing fires.

The fires have been going strong for almost a week, and thousands of acres of land have been destroyed.

In Carrai National Park, which is north of Sydney, nearly 300,000 acres have succumbed to the flames according to NPR. A fire near Port Macquarie destroyed over 5,000 acres and took the lives of almost 350 koalas, according to the same article.

Australia has seen some fires in its history, but never to this magnitude. Many people are blaming climate change as the main culprit for these catastrophic disasters.

In a piece he wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Mullins, the former Commissioner of New South Wales' Fire and Rescue Department, voices his concern about the fires.

"If anyone tells you, 'This is part of a normal cycle' or 'We've had fires like this before', smile politely and walk away, because they don't know what they're talking about," he wrote in his article.

There have been three reported casualties caused by the fires. Still, current New South Wales Rural Fire Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons sent out a warning for people to evacuate ahead of time, according to an article posted by CNN.

The fires have been labeled "catastrophic," and Fitzsimmons urges residents not to take the warnings lightly. "Catastrophic conditions are where lives are lost, it's where people die. The risks are absolutely real," he said in a quote pulled from CNN.

Unfortunately, the end of the fires is not near insight. However, firefighters and residents are doing everything they can to stay safe and extinguish the flames before they cause any more damage.